Neutrals who absconded or absented themselves to avoid the oath, were to be summoned before the commissioners by publication, 'Appendix I: Laws. June 30, 1778.

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Introduction *9

to appear at a designated place within twenty-one days from the date of the said publication in the newspapers. Their default was adjudged equal to a refusal of the oath or affirmation. Those who were removed or who defaulted were declared as banished from the State; if discovered in

any part thereof, they were, upon conviction, to be adjudged guilty of misprision of treason. All lands held in the State by persons attainted, "on the twenty-sixth Day of June Instant [1778], in Fee Simple or Fee Tail, or which may hereafter be acquired by, or devised, granted, or descend" to any of them, were forever thereafter to "be charged with double Taxes, in whosesoever Hands the said Lands may hereafter be." The immediate execution of this last mandate was prevented by subsequent tax acts, which provided that only a single tax should be collected on lands of persons removed within the enemy's lines, until such time as the legislature should make another provision for the collection of the said extra taxes. 1 While the act of June 30, 1778, indicated removal forthwith within the British lines, it provided a reservation, lodged in the governor or "Person administering the Government" for the time being, who was to be notified by the commissioners prior to the removal of persons, and who could detain and confine those whom he adjudged proper for exchanges. All magistrates, sheriffs and constables were ordered to assist the commissioners in expediting the execution of the act. As the first term of the commissioners was to expire on the first of November, an act was passed, October 29,